Realtors on defensive about housing stats

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We did not take a red-eye to Washington last night so that we could be at the National Assn. of Realtors headquarters this morning when the monthly sales numbers were released. But CNBC’s Diana Olick was there, and she filed this interesting item indicating the NAR is on the defensive about its housing market stats:

‘The PR team passed out two interesting papers: “Fact Sheet,” they each blared across the top in bold print.... I asked: Why the papers? Well it seems they’ve been getting a lot of calls, not from the folks sitting there in the room, but from others. Who? They wouldn’t say. I asked why they seemed to be on the defensive. ‘Criticism of the national data, not local. The trend of inquiries has been rising,’ Walt Molony of the NAR told me.’

We’re not sure the exact nature of the criticism. Any thoughts, ideas? The NAR’s national numbers did show a slight year-over-year increase in the median sales price of existing homes.